Content Warning(s): Sexual harassment; youth incarceration; queerphobia; sexual assault; mental health.
Ah – the National Union of Students’s National Conference, to some an opportunity to debate – a term used in this context quite liberally – the most pressing issues facing students around the country, to cynics an opportunity for hacks who envision themselves in the chambers of Parliament to hone their skills. Or to these lowly student journalists, a lot of people yelling at each other late into the evening…
The reason for this cynicism, whilst often unfair, is found in the political foundations of the Conference. Typically dominated by delegates from three factions: Socialist Alternative (SAlt), National Labor Students (NLS), and Student Unity – the latter two of whom are affiliated with the two major factions of the Australian Labor Party. Together they made up 80% of the conference floor, holding roughly 20%, 10%, and 50% respectively. The remaining 20% of the floor was composed of smaller factions, the Grassroots, a grouping of progressive left-wing students who recently suffered crushing defeats at USyd and ANU; Forge, a collection of students from Queensland; and the Windies, a group of independent students from Western Australia – as the name suggests. Expectations ahead of the conference were that Unity would wield their majority to wave through motions they supported, whilst blocking those which they opposed.
Day One
Our four days of anguish began early on Monday morning, aboard a train bound for Ballarat, specifically Federation University’s Mt Helen campus – arguably the most comfortable experience of the week. Following a lengthy accreditation process out in the gorgeous sunshine – gorgeous until we realised the severity of our sunburns – the conference was opened three hours late by NUS President Ngaire Bogemann at 5:00pm, launching into the first of 14 chapters of policy – rules changes. Not two motions in, and we struck our first contentious motion, an amendment to NUS rules permitting a livestream of the Conference for accessibility purposes, despite SAlt labelling the motion “undemocratic” and then voting against the change, the motion carried. It’s worth noting that the chosen venue was criticised over its lack of accessibility last year, and as a result of the decision to hold this year’s conference at the same venue meant the 2024 Disabilities Officer was unable to attend. SAlt’s borderline ableism continued, as they voted down the next motion to pay the NUS Disabilities Officer, on the basis it would take pay from the Queer Officers – which coincidentally is an office held by members of their faction.
We then moved swiftly onto chapter two, student unionism, where the grouping of motions into blocs started ramping up. Topics of discussion included fighting militarism, including an attempt to call for the scrapping of the AUKUS contracts which ultimately failed after Unity voted the bloc down; supporting the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU); giving student unions greater control of SSAF and on-campus spaces; and calling for the NUS and student unions to do more to support students. The chapter was disrupted by what was supposed to be an hour-long break for dinner that blew out to two owing to re-accreditation. Motions concerning scab unions and the forthcoming federal election saw another recurring point of contention emerge, being SAlt’s accusations about the Labor Party’s – and by extension the members of its student political factions – culpability in various problems facing the nation, often with varying degrees of relevance to the motion at hand – though the ensuing heckling from those factions was all but guaranteed.
Despite being scheduled as finishing at 10:00pm each evening, tonight also marked the first of several nights to be extended by procedural motion to past 11:00pm or the end of a relevant chapter. In this case, chapter three on trade unionism. The majority of these motions called for the NUS to show solidarity with other unions fighting for fairer rights and pay for their members, including campaigns supporting gig workers, abolishing junior wages, and ending wage theft. One particular bloc of contention in this chapter included standing against the decision to place the CFMEU in administration, leading to a brief resurgence in SAlt’s sledging of the ALP – “Labor is the party of bosses” – as Unity voted the bloc down. And thankfully for those of us who had been slaving away at keyboards all evening – we polished the final bloc off at 10:56pm, ready to start all over again at 9:00am the next morning.
Day Two
The second day began at 9:44am, in what was a noticeably more subdued atmosphere, either the effect of having barely made it out of bed, or more likely the aftermath of one too many glasses of factional punch. Either way we were caffeinated and ready to launch into the first of the four chapters on the day’s agenda, First Nations.
This chapter proved to be a pivotal turning point to the outcome of the Conference. It started the same as many others: blocs of motions, the occasional amendment to absolve the ALP of blame from Unity, and heckling about the ALP’s culpability by SAlt. Motion 9.5 (Raise the Age of Criminal Responsibility – Kids Don’t Belong in Court) turned the Conference on its head when Unity proposed an amendment changing the proposed raised age from 18 to 16 – we received reports that prior to Conference this change was to 12, but this was abandoned in favour of 16. Amid cries of shame from NLS, SAlt, and most other factions on the floor, a campus count was called for by SAlt. In which the doors to the floor are locked and the number of votes held by each delegate – varying depending on the size of their campus – are tallied. The whole process took an hour, and determined that Unity did not in fact have the majority that everyone – including us – had presumed them to have. Rumours suggested this was due to some of their delegates being absent from the floor at the time of the count, and the groupings hailing from Queensland and WA voting against the amendment. Irrespective, despite a procedural entitled ‘Unity Has the Numbers’, this new information formed the status quo for the remainder of the conference – a win for the newly minted majority-holding ‘Left Bloc’. Debate on this chapter continued for the remainder of the morning session, covering calls to close detention centres, supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across the country, and continued support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The afternoon session started with a bang when yet another procedural asserting ‘Unity Has the Numbers’, nearly ended in another campus count, after a member of the Windies called for one as a (sick) ‘joke’. Nevertheless, we launched into the Education chapter beginning with a bloc of motions condemning the corporatisation and significant cuts at universities across the country. Whilst all factions were in agreement with the substance of the bloc, opinions differed on how best to fight these cuts from the NLS’s “two-pronged approach” of activism and change from within, to the militant activism favoured by SAlt. And of course plenty of discord over whether or not the Government should be to blame as well. The debate on fees also proved quarrelsome, with Unity breaking into chants of “HECS is best!” on numerous occasions – to the chagrin of NLS and SAlt who are wholly in favour of fee-free tertiary education as had been the case from 1974 to 1989. Other matters discussed after dinner included AI and TurnItIn, motions described by SAlt as ‘unserious’ when courses are being cut; bolstering academic freedom; and support for working students.
By now it was 9:30pm and bar a five minute break, there was no signs of stopping as we ploughed on into the Disabilities chapter, not before several procedurals could be passed to enact accessibility considerations for everyone’s benefit – including AusLan clapping for applause, thumbs down for shame, and clicking for here here, much to the annoyance of SAlt. Particularly after last year’s conference where the levelling of heckling resulted in the conference’s closure for the year. The opening motions concerning the NDIS – labelled by SAlt as being ripe for profiteering and incentivising privatisation – led to fierce debate that was carried by some delegates into debate on other blocs, concerning accessibility at NatCon, as well as accessibility measures at universities more broadly – with a particular focus on the recently completed Australian Universities Accord’s ignorance of disabled students. By 11:30pm, we were through the chapter with – in the terms of NatCon at least; but not necessarily reality – a relatively civil manner.
Day Three
The next morning started slightly later in the day – presumably in a bid to alleviate the poor turnout of the previous morning that proved oh so costly to Unity – with the Ethnocultural chapter. The chapter opened with two blocs concerning the conflict in Israel and Palestine – which were both carried with unanimous support. Other motions also called upon the NUS to take a stance on conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Armenia and Azerbaijan – all of which also passed. A bloc concerning Australia’s alliance with the United States saw a return to Monday’s debates over AUKUS, though unlike Monday morning the bloc carried in spite of Unity’s dissent. Another contentious bloc concerning immigration detention passed with unanimous support despite a fairly heated debate over a series of amendments moved by Unity that SAlt described as ‘gutting’ the motions of any substance. Two urgency motions closed out the chapter, one concerning Peter Dutton’s refusal to stand in front of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags which passed with unanimous support, and one to encourage attendance at the NUS Ethnocultural Conference on the proviso “attendees are not disruptive” which also passed albeit with SAlt dissenting.
It was then time for the largest single chapter of the Conference, Welfare, comprising 53 motions covering a broad variety of issues facing students. This chapter – like several before it – brought opportunity for tempestuous debate even though almost all votes had unanimous support behind them. A particularly contentious bloc concerned the housing crisis, in which NLS were labelled “National Landlord Students” by SAlt over their support of a Unity amendment to strike a point to “…ban ownership of more than one residential property…” – the motion in question later passed with Unity dissenting. Other blocs discussed before lunch included expansion of the recently introduced paid placement programme particularly to degrees not originally covered; public transport concessions; and student accommodation. Post-lunch, the chapter continued with motions focusing on the provision of mental health services; designated smoking places on campus, which SAlt decried as a distraction from “Labor’s failures”; a motion highlighting the barriers – particularly for women – posed by the conduct of some in StuPol; further support for women including the provision of contraception and childcare on campuses; an increase to the rate of welfare payments, including AusStudy, Youth Allowance, and DSP; free car parking on campuses; and a return to the housing debate. A motion calling for the nationalisation of Coles and Woolworths led to Unity declaring (unironically) “at the end of the day, everything’s about profit” – the motion passed with their dissent.
It was then on to the Women’s chapter, which saw the number of motions per bloc drastically increased to facilitate quicker progress through the remaining 7 chapters to be finished by Conference’s end tomorrow evening. The first bloc called for greater support for survivors of gender-based violence, which was passed unanimously. A bloc concerning increasing abortion rights was passed unanimously, after Unity reached a decision to bind on the matter, having previously allowed a conscience vote. Other blocs including support for mother’s undergoing tertiary studies, overcoming the gender-pay gap and further representation of women in male-dominated industries; the impact of the cost of living crisis on women; and calls for greater women representation in student unions were all passed. A motion to abolish the USyd Colleges proved contentious as Unity had allegedly ripped up an unanimously supported amendment to abolish the colleges entirely, irrespective the motion still passed.
Conference was intended to continue later into the night, however owing to a disagreement between factional leaders over who ought to chair the Queer chapter – Unity were pushing for the incoming Queer Officer from their faction, whilst SAlt argued for the incumbent Queer Officer, a member of SAlt – led to the latter pulling quorum, thus ending the conference early (10:32pm), to resume tomorrow after balloting.
Day Four
The final morning of the Conference allowed us all to rest our weary eardrums as balloting occurred, before the Conference resumed the following afternoon with six chapters to work through. Prior though, for legal compliance, the 2024 Financial Report had to be passed, which it was although the Windies abstained – over a comment from outgoing General Secretary Jono De La Pena over the increased cost of hosting EdCon in WA.
Having negotiated a resolution to the dispute from the previous evening, we moved on to the Queer chapter, though not before a procedural to allow NLS to conduct a “business transaction” to purchase one of the many articles of literature SAlt had been selling all week. All motions in this chapter were passed, split between 3 blocs and 2 stand-alone motions. The first bloc concerned fighting against discrimination and for greater representation of queer students in university settings; the second and third concerned themselves with queer discrimination more broadly – including the ALP’s failure to include queer people in the census, and their persecution of LGBTQIA+ refugees. Motion 7.16 – the final to be discussed for the chapter – proved to be the most contentious of the chapter, calling for the use of the full LGBTQIA+ acronym, the motion passed with SAlt – who prefer the acronym LGBTI+ – dissenting on the basis that “oppression is not about acronyms”.
The next chapter, Small and Regional, was briefly delayed by a procedural to move the two Vocational Education motions first en bloc, which were passed albeit with SAlt – of whom the newly-elected Vocational Education Officer is a member – abstaining. The chapter was moved as two blocs, both of which were passed. Focussing on regional tertiary education, as well as supporting disadvantaged regional students. Though as per usual with plenty of debate. Specifically over the character of those living in the regions, as SAlt suggested “oppression isn’t when you live a little way outside the city”, suggesting regional students don’t require specific considerations.
The penultimate chapter of the Conference focussed on supporting international students, primarily focusing on two issues: the recently legislated caps for international students; and the cost of an international education in Australia. Which included another rendition of Unity’s “HECS is best!” chant as they voted against a motion moved by SAlt calling for free international and domestic education – thus ending the chapter.
The final chapter, Environment, rounded out the conference and somehow after four days of constant argument, the delegates’ rage and enthusiasm hadn’t seemed to have dulled at all. As argument over the final bloc of the conference – including debate on Labor’s role in exacerbating the climate crisis through the approval of expansions to coal and gas mines, as well as Unity’s support for the adoption of nuclear energy as a solution to the climate crisis – raged on, resulting in the chapter’s motions passing despite Unity’s dissent. Marking an end to a long week for all involved.
For these two intrepid editors, who entered the week with a sense of naive optimism – “how bad can it be.” Duske, December 9, 2024 2:33pm – we found ourselves leaving Ballarat knowing we would never be able to hear the words “shame”, “Labor”, and “outrageous” nor think of “punch” (IYKYK) the same way again. It was a week of yelling, heckling, and organised chaos – though at times pure chaos seemed to be the victor of the day. Perhaps, at the end of the day the conference was best summed up by one of Monash’s own delegates bellowing: “Yelling is incompetence!”
